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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23964769">Nameless Star and Namine chat about fandoms</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Analysis, Fandom Analysis, Gen, Mentions several other characters, Meta, Metafiction, echo chambers, mentions of the word pedophilia, mentions other ships but very vaguely, this is a fanfic but also an analysis at the same time</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:23:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,133</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23964769</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Nameless Star sighed as it looked once more over their work.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fandom/Meta, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous Fics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Nameless Star and Namine chat about fandoms</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone</p><p>There was an analysis that got deleted and I decided to remake it into a (meta)fanfic</p><p>Please mind the tags and the rating!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The Nameless Star sighed as it looked once more over the document. So much has happened in the past, they’ve met so many people, made good and bad memories and decided to share their experience. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A knock on the door interrupted them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Nameless Star! It’s me, Naminé. You wanted to talk?” Naminé said from behind the door and Nameless Star opened the door to let her in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Naminé smiled at the Nameless Star, but her expression morphed to concern when the Nameless Star didn’t respond. “You sounded so upset over the phone. Is everything alright?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, well… I wanted to talk to you about something,” the Nameless Star explained, gesturing to Naminé to take a seat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, I’m all ears!” Naminé said when she and the Nameless Star sat down. “What exactly do you want to talk about?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wanted to talk about the Kingdom Hearts fandom. You know that I really like the games ever since I played the first game, but I sometimes regret getting so involved in the fandom. This might just be my view of things, but it’s actually really toxic,” the Nameless Star explained, sighing softly when they recalled some unpleasant memories. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Namine’s expression turned to that of confusion. “How is it toxic? What happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took the Nameless Star’s hand into hers and squeezed it gently, which earned a soft smile from her friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose I should start with the beginning,” the Nameless Star said, rubbing their thumb over Namine’s hand. “When I first joined the Kingdom Hearts fandom, it was very quiet. The latest game was still months and months away and I joined places I was very happy in. This only lasted a couple of months after the release of  KH3, and that’s when I realized that this fandom is completely nuts,” the Nameless Star sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aside from problems such as questionable narrative and using Kairi as mere plot device again, the fandom itself became very toxic. People got harassed for liking characters or simple ships, they misused strong words such as pedophilia and more than often I saw how strangers were suddenly at each others’ throats for having different opinions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pedophilia?! How can people misuse that word?” Naminé gasped and looked horrified at this revelation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you know that pedophilia means it is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children, right?” the Nameless Star asked and Naminé nodded. “Well, many people started to believe that this also applies to fictional characters, but that is simply not the case.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sounds logical,” Naminé hummed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there,” Nameless Star grumbled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fan Works depicting two fictional characters with an age gap is wrong according to these people. Even if these two characters are just standing next to each other, it is automatically bad and adults should not get near minors. But friendships like these exist in real life too! I don’t understand how certain people could forget that. And if an adult standing next to a minor is wrong, what about parents then? Are they not allowed to stand next to their child? Are they not allowed to hug or touch their child? Are they automatically a pedophile for expressing platonic affection? Do you see how ridiculous this is?” Nameless Star asked and Namine nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think it’s wrong at all!” Naminé exclaimed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The two characters I’m referring to are also good friends. We never see the older one lusting after his younger friend. He wants to revive their friendship they had together because his friend made him feel happy. Anyway, some people like to see them in a romantic light, and I think that’s also fine. It’s fiction after all, it can’t hurt us, right?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I don’t think it can. Are you going to tell me that there are people out there who believe otherwise?” Naminé wondered and gasped once more when her friend nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. These people believe that fan works affect reality. It does to a certain point, but not in the way these people claim it does. Let me explain it with a fan story and a very popular mainstream pop song. Back in 2013 there was a fan story in the Hetalia fandom that used this song. It caused the story to be semi-popular in the very niche group of people that watched or liked the show it was written for and read this story. Back in the day, the fandom was huge! So you would see one or two music videos with the song, or some cute fanart. But not many people knew what the lyrics of that song meant and that it is actually about a very dark event,” the Nameless Star explained and paused to gather their thoughts before continuing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Many years later I heard this song again, blasting through the speakers of a club to a pop remix and I was so confused. I knew what this song was, and what it meant, but here it was being butchered with no context. I learned that a very popular show used this song, which is why suddenly everyone knew about it. This song did affect reality in the end. It is used with no context of what it means and it’s consumed as brainless pop culture. But it wasn’t the fanfic that did it, you see? And the fanfic was insanely popular! Yet  no matter how popular it was, it could have never reached this cultural impact. It is nothing more than a breath against mainstream media. Now tell me, what impact could a properly tagged work, which is also shielded from the general public, possibly make to people?” the Nameless Star asked Naminé.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Naminé thought about it for a moment before replying with: “None. It would impact me personally, but not the general public.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s right! The true problem lies in the masses and mainstream media. That is why people criticize mainstream media. It has a farther reach and their ripples affect the general society. When it comes to fan works, we can choose what we want to see and what not. But with mainstream media, that’s not possible.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So people get harassed because of that?” Naminé inquired and earned a sigh from her friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. I believe that it only got so bad because social media communities no longer monitor people and their wrong and or harmful takes. There are still communities which do that, but the majority doesn’t care and it magnifies to an insane amount. We can clearly see this in the Kingdom Hearts fandom as well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How so?” Naminé wondered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s a very popular fan theory about sleeping realms circulating on the internet. Just like many others, I read it too and I respect the time and effort that was put into it, but I don’t really agree with it,” the Nameless Star explained. “But people forget that it’s not canon. It’s just a theory, so everyone is free to agree or disagree with it. Unfortunately it led to so much harassment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“People aren’t allowed to make theories now?” Naminé shook her head in disbelief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You see, the writers of said theory are people who like to see two characters together, which are Riku and Sora. Some people felt the need to get vocal about it because they like a different ship or simply don’t agree with it at all. I cannot say for certain that it really was the cause, but it resulted in harassment and drama on both sides. Of course no one wants to go through that, and I don’t support harassment and or callouts. I once said I don’t mind if people like the fictional ship I mentioned before and that made people believe I was some sort of predator. Do you know how anxious that made me feel? I hated it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my!” Naminé exclaimed and squeezed her friend’s hand once again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks. But that’s unfortunately how the fandom is. Either you’re insanely popular or you’re not. This gap between people also caused another problem.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened?” Naminé asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There will sadly always be things that stress us more than it should and it creates a place in which people have to fight and find the right groups to “survive”. Many people are so quick to take a side and believe that it is correct and that they are “just”. No matter which relationship they side with, no matter which ideal they pick, they shouldn’t go after another ship or a person simply because they contradict with their perception of canon. It defeats the purpose of leaving things open for interpretation, which is why picking sides has and always will be toxic for communities. It has created Echo Chambers, or if I had to explain it in simpler words, high school cliques. And I believe you know how notorious high school cliques can be, right?” the Nameless Star grinned when Naminé snorted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is an Echo Chamber?” Naminé inquired. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is a description of a situation in which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside an enclosed system. This is probably hard to understand, isn’t it?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is,” Naminé sighed. “Can you explain it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course. Imagine this: you’re surrounded by people you call friends. Some, if not most or all of them, repeat the same beliefs and opinions and make you feel bad for having a different opinion. You’re starting to feel scared for criticizing something, but this is, simply explained, what an echo chamber is. You don’t have to be in one to see how toxic this is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, I can see it. So the bigger the echo chamber is, the more popular the people in it are. And that leads to more people joining the echo chamber and that makes it harder for people to voice their own beliefs and opinions. Did I understand that right?” Naminé summarized and smiled when her friend nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s right! This is even further increased when it comes to shipping wars. People will reach a certain point at which they are tempted to be negative, snappy and rude when they see people bashing a ship they like, so they will search for fans like them and stay in their own group of friends,” the Nameless Star explained. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course taking the necessary steps to preserve your mental health is encouraged, but the people who stick with their friend groups which share their opinions are one of many reasons why bigger and bigger bubbles are created and end up as echo chambers. People will not allow criticism; they would rather have it shut down, call people out for having a different opinion or block them and whine how this person is an “anti”. The same communities end up ignoring other creative people and shift their attention to their like-minded friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That does sound a lot like high school cliques,” Naminé sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This can be seen on the post about a certain ship related ultimania project,” the Nameless Star continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I doubt that the user behind the post wanted to imply that their friends or people who like the same couple are allowed to join, but the wording does sound like they were implying it, which in turn probably has upset others. And while I agree that it should be pointed out that the wording doesn’t sound very inclusive, many people are afraid to voice their opinion publicly, simply agree with what had been said or abstain from voicing their thoughts altogether.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what do you think about this project?” Naminé inquired curiously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have no opinion on the project itself. I see no harm in it and they seem to have fun in analyzing the different characters and their relationships,” the Nameless Star replied truthfully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Echo chambers are also closely tied to confirmation bias. To explain what that is in simple words, it means humans have the tendency to agree with opinions that are similar to our own point-of-view and we find them more valuable than opinions which are different. This can be magnified to an insane proportion in ignorant people, people who have power, people who think they have power, people on a power trip, and people who hate criticism in general. It might come from a fear of change, fear of what one does not know, or from a god complex.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you give an example of what that means?” Naminé suggested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, I can do that. Imagine that you encounter a person who believes that a certain ship is canon, for example Axel and Saix. Whenever they meet a person who also likes this couple and also thinks they’re canon, they place greater importance on this ‘evidence’ that supports what they already believe. This individual might even seek ‘proof’ that further backs up their belief while ignoring examples that don't support the idea,” the Nameless Star explained and stopped to see if Naminé was following their explanation. She smiled and nodded, so the Nameless Star continued. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t just stop at that. Confirmation bias impacts how we gather and interpret information. For example, people who like this couple will not only seek information to support it, they will also interpret canon material or news and updates in a way that upholds their existing ideas. They will remember certain details in a way that reinforces these attitudes and do not allow criticism. Confirmation bias can also lead to people applying their own beliefs and thoughts into the characters and scenarios, thus the way they view the fandom or story itself is affected. This can lead to other fans treating outside perception with hostility or negativity. Say if a person believes that a character is gay for example, simply because they are gay, and another person believes otherwise, this often leads to hostile debates, merely because someone else is ‘challenging’ their own opinions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That sounds incredibly messy,” Naminé frowned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Nameless Star nodded. “If someone challenges their beliefs, that means they are also challenging the person as well. And if one challenges those beliefs with any sort of critique, they are quickly labeled as a ‘hater’.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you think should be done so this doesn’t happen so often?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Nameless Star sighed. “A huge problem in this fandom is that people can’t see the fine line between criticism and hate. No one wants to harass or to be harassed by others, but without critique, we will never learn from our mistakes and never grow as a person. Healthy criticism should be allowed and encouraged, but the echo chambers make it hard to even suggest changes and or different opinions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Echo chambers sure sound like a nuisance,” Naminé sighed as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. And there are also fans who feel the need to let others know how they affect the fandom, to the point where they believe that they own, have control over, or think they can control the people who create art or stories. But fandoms are for everyone, and just because they create a piece of media, be it a story or an art piece of two characters, doesn’t mean that it’s going to actually affect the things they’re passionate about. Just because they create an interesting rewrite of a story does not mean that the creator of the games is going to change the narrative just for their own pleasure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Naminé nodded to that, taking a while to process all the information. “So people are willing to harshly critique others, but are unwilling to receive criticism themselves. That’s sad.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s also another thing that makes me angry,” the Nameless Star said. “There are other passionate and creative minds who share content into which they have put a lot of time and effort into, and who hope to find an audience and approval or validation of their works. However, because others stick to their like-minded friends only, their work hardly gets any attention, which puts the fandom in an even worse state.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no!” Naminé exclaimed. “Aren’t you a media creator yourself?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, and believe me when I say that the lack or complete absence of an audience is discouraging and will make you feel like your work isn’t worthy to be shared online. I have seen people giving up on fandoms and on projects they were so passionate about before because of that. Some even ended up believing that their work isn’t comparable to that of a more popular person and that they should stop sharing their work altogether.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But what makes those individuals different from the popular fans?” Naminé wondered. “Is there actually a difference?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Nameless Star shook their head. “Both groups enjoy the games or just one game. Even if you don’t create content, you’re still a fan of the games if you’re saying that you are! And no one should imply or accuse you of being a lesser fan just because you voice an opinion or create content that is different from the popular fans and which doesn’t fit into ‘their standards’. It seems though as if you have to make the right connections with the right people, so that whatever you share is actually noticed. I can count the few people on my hand to whom this doesn't apply, because they ‘earned’ the spotlight through hard work, and this is how it should be in my opinion!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Nameless Star stood up from their chair and Naminé let go of their hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Every fan deserves a spot in the light. It’s a different case if they don’t want to be in it, but those who struggle to get their work out there should be encouraged to continue what they’re doing, well if they love doing it that is. We should look at those people who are standing in the shadows, who want to shine and who want to feel proud! We should create safe spaces for people to vent, to freely express their opinion without feeling afraid, we should create more variety, we should look for or create more open places that welcome everyone and we should try to pay more attention to those who struggle, but whose works are just as valid,” the Nameless Star exclaimed, earning a chuckle from their friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So are you suggesting we should stop looking at popular people?” Naminé asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, of course not! They too deserve to shine, but we shouldn’t forget that other people are out there too. And that’s really all I have to say to this topic. I feel like I ranted enough about it already,” the Nameless Star said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, in that case I thank you for trusting me enough to tell me all of this!” Naminé thanked her friend, who smiled back at her. </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
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